Old Sixie

Colin Baker is featured in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine.

I have always thought that The Sixth Doctor got a raw deal from “the fans” back in the 1980s.

This was era of the grumpy fans who thought they knew better than anyone so they were always trying to get Producer John Nathan-Turner (in particular) sacked.

They spewed venom on the show they “loved”. Find a copy of Doctor Who Bulletin/DWB sometime…They were, to me, like many film critics, if they hated it I probably wouldn’t.

Then Colin does Big Finish nearly 15 years later and wins the Fan polls for Best Doctor 2 years running.

But the stigma and the myth, remains.

I have a friend who refuses to watch Colin Baker’s Doctor because he “hates” him.

And that is carried forward into the new era.

In the last Doctor Who Magazine the person in charge of the DVD range said that many 6th & 7th Doctor stories had massive amounts of behind the scenes and other material available for special features but because they sold less copies and were perceived to do so they didn’t spend the extra money they would on, say a Tom Baker DVD.

That’s a business decision but it is very sad none the less.

Sixth Doctor Colin Baker has opened up about the fact that his Time Lord often ends up being the lowest-rated Doctor on Doctor Who. The man who returned to the Whoniverse in the 2013 comedy spoof the Five(ish) Doctors Reboot says that it actually wounds him to see his Doctor being rated so low.

Baker took over the mantle of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison back in March of 1984 and ended his TARDIS run on December 6, 1986; playing the Mad Man in the TARDIS for three series before regenerating into Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor.

Speaking in the newest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#489), Colin Baker said: “I know there are some people who rate my Doctor quite highly. It’s just there’s an even greater number of people who don’t rate him at all. And it wounds me. I should be able to rise above it, and pretend I don’t care, but I actually do care.”

He also talked about his feelings concerning Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi exploring some familiar ground with the role of the beloved Time Lord. “I wish people could have understood it in the 1980s as much as they do now.”

“[Capaldi’s Doctor] is grumpy and curmudgeonly and intolerant, and gosh – I should be playing it now. I wasn’t old enough when I did it. I can do intolerant!”

Colin Baker added: “It was drawn to my attention before I noticed it myself, but a lot of people said, ‘Peter Capaldi is just like your Doctor’. I don’t mean to diminish his performance, because I think he’s superb, and he might be appalled to think he was anything like me, and I would quite respect that. But there are certainly similarities of attitude.”

The man who played the very colorful sixth incarnation of the Doctor also offered his opinion on Peter Capaldi’s more subdued outfit. “[Capaldi’s] costume is less annoying! I love his style, and I love his character – and it’s kind of like mine. Every six, they get it right!”

What do you guys think? Where would you rate Six on the scale of Doctors on Doctor Who?